"Are you the Great and Powerful Trixie?"
It was Nightmare Night. It would still be Nightmare Night for the rest of the night, but she was stuck there. She had to do that. It was geting rather tiring. But she couldn't exactly stop doing it, even if it meant missing out on a camping trip with Starlight and her friends. She would have liked to give a show in front of them.
"Are you the Great and Powerful Trixie?"
She'd been rather surprised when she'd first been asked to be there and do that. But, after all, the request had come from the one pony who she trusted most in all of Equestria. She could not have refused to do it, as strange as she'd found the event. Now that she'd gotten used to it it was getting a little boring though.
"Are you Trixie, the G&P?"
"Well, no, actually that would be Trixie, the S&F."
Trixie looked up from her desk. It was another one of those strange, bipedal Trixies. She was about to ask what that meant but the Trixie to her left spoke before her.
"Oh, you must be Trixie from universe number two three eight three six eight. Right now you should be heading towards universe number three two three eight one two. You should find it pretty easily, just go over there and then turn left, it's the one with the red door."
Trixie began to walk off in the direction she'd been pointed to.
"What does 'S&F' stand for?" Trixie asked.
"I'm afraid it's not something suitable for this universe," the Trixie to her left replied.
Trixie went back to observing the long line of Trixies in front of her. "Are you Trixie, the G&P?" she asked to the one currently in front of her.
"I used to. Now I'm the G&D," Trixie replied. "Please be quick, they're waiting for me for a show. That lava isn't going to stay warm forever."
"Oh, I'd heard about you. Yeah, keep going." Trixie looked at the next Trixie. "Oh, you. What was your name again? Tristan? Trevor? Ah, whatever. Are you great and powerful?"
The stallion in front of her nodded.
"Good. Then go on." Trixie slouched back in her chair.
"I'm sorry we had to force you to do this," the Great and Powerful pony to her left said to her.
"Don't worry. I mean, someTrixie had to do it, right?" Trixie said, sitting upright and motioning the Trixie in front of her desk to keep walking. "Still, I'm not exactly sure of what's happening. Could you explain it to me one more time?"
"Well, you see-" the Trixie to her left pulled up a graph with a series of pictures "-the Great and Powerful Trixie Continuum has recently undergone mysterious fluctuations the source of which has yet to be identified. This has led to a series of instances of unwanted and potentially dangerous events that could damage the fabric of our reality, such as this one right here." Trixie pointed her hoof towards a picture.
"In order to avoid any possible further consequences, the Great and Powerful Order of Great and Powerful Things concerning the Great and Powerful Nature of the Great and Powerful Trixie Continuum, or the GaPOoGaPTctGaPNotGaPTC for short, has decided to temporarily disable the Great and Powerful automatic sorting of Great and Powerful Trixies, which means we have to redirect each Trixie to the right universe by hand. And I, as ambassador of the GaPOoGaPTctGaPNotGaPTC, was sent here to inform you and aid you in this task."
"I remember that. It was rather weird to wake up and find another Great and Powerful me at my door. Wait, did you say hand?"
"Oh, sorry, I forgot you don't have hands in this universe. Many members of the GaPOoGaPTctGaPNotGaPTC have them, so you get used to them saying that. I guess 'by hoof' would be more appropriate here."
Another Great and Powerful unicorn walked by the desk and was allowed to leave.
"So what exactly are we doing here? And why me, here?" Trixie asked while distractedly looking at the line of Trixies to make sure that they were all appropriately Great and Powerful.
"Well, there's no real reason why we chose this universe. You just appeared to be a perfectly normal and suitable Trixie, with levels of greatness and powerfulness very close to the optimal ones, and this world wasn't particularly destabilized by interdimensional radiations when we chose it. The contamination levels are going up a bit right now, but it's nothing too drastic."
Another bipedal Trixie walked by, and the two had to take a moment to make sure she was fitting of her title.
"As for what exactly we're doing here, well-" Trixie reclined back in her chair "-sometime the fluctuations of the multiverse produce a Trixie who doesn't conform to the parameters of the GaPOoGaPTctGaPNotGaPTC. Now, the parameters are fairly loose, even too loose if you ask some, but sometimes a Trixie that doesn't fit into them still pops up. When that happens, the Trixie needs to be reinserted into the fluctuating section of the Continuum. Normally the Great and Powerful automatic sorting of Great and Powerful Trixies takes care of that on its own, but since we had to disable it we have to make sure that none gets through."
"And what happens if we fail?" Trixie asked, curious, as she allowed a six-legged Trixie to walk away.
"The universe gets destroyed. If we're lucky, that is. The GaPOoGaPTctGaPNotGaPTC will send one of its Great and Powerful existence erasing bombs and wipe out the whole place, hoping that the infection doesn't spread too far. Once we lost twelve different universes because of one failed check that had allowed an inappropriate Trixie to enter one of them."
Trixie swallowed, suddenly nervous. "How do we recognize them?"
"Oh, it's fairly easy. This one for example."
A yellow Trixie with a green mane was in front of the desk. The Trixie to Trixie's left pushed a button under the desk and a hole opened up below the yellow Trixie, who fell back into the fluctuating Continuum.
"Next!" the Trixie to Trixie's left called.
"Are you the Great and Powerful Trixie?" Trixie asked to the pony who had nervously stepped forward, taking on her task with vigour renewed by fear.
It was going to be a long Nightmare Night.